The journey was long and fraught with obstacles. The goal once seemed unreachable. But this week, Canada became the first country in the world to adopt a national standard for mental health in the workplace.

The 61-page
code
of good practices is endorsed by business, labour, the federal government, the non-profit sector and the aboriginal community. It reflects a societal recognition that mental illness can no longer be neglected or treated as a personal weakness. It is the culmination of 14 years of research, advocacy, consciousness-raising and consensus building.

The new standard is not mandatory. There is no penalty for ignoring it; no external reward (tax credits, a badge of approval) for implementing it. The hope is that employers will embrace it voluntarily, knowing that talented workers will gravitate toward companies where it is safe to talk about mental illness with a superior, a human resources counsellor or a union representative.

Seventy-seven per cent of Canadian workers now experiencing mental-health problems suffer in silence. They are afraid or ashamed to disclose a mental illness.

Until the guidelines become a part of corporate culture, it would be premature to call the launch of the national standard a breakthrough. But as Labour Minister
Lisa Raitt,
who hid her struggle with postpartum depression for seven years, put it: “This is everybody’s business. It’s a topic we still don’t talk enough about.”

She was flanked on the podium by
David Goldbloom
, chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada;
George Cope
, chief executive of Bell Canada Enterprises;
Ken Georgetti
, president of the Canadian Labour Congress; and Michael Nixon, senior vice-president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. It was a rare display of solidarity. They all strongly endorsed the national standard, explaining why it mattered, how they would promote it, and how proud they were that Canada had the lead in spelling out how to treat workers experiencing mental illness with respect and compassion.

Long before mental illness was on anybody’s radar screen, they co-founded the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health. Wilkerson, former president of Liberty Health (now Manulife Financial), had seen the toll psychiatric illnesses — depression, bipolar disorder, debilitating anxiety — takes on corporate finances, workplace productivity and the lives of employees and their families. Wilson, the former federal finance minister, had watched his son Cameron struggle with acute depression, sink into debilitating misery and take his own life.

When they joined forces in 1998, people had little sympathy for workers who didn’t pull their weight. They were assumed to be lazy, unfocused or irresponsible. Employees struggling to cope with mental disorders turned to alcohol and opioids. Parents pressured kids who couldn’t focus or succeed to get a grip and apply themselves (as Wilson did).

They held information sessions for corporate leaders. They published fact sheets, pointed out harmful management practices, publicized the advice of leading psychiatrists, made speeches and convened public forums. Little by little, business started buying in. A few senior executives became mental health champions.

Hoping to get Ottawa involved, Wilkerson testified before a
Senate committee examining medicare
. He made a powerful appeal to its chair, Michael Kirby, to follow up with an investigation of Canada’s ad hoc, underfinanced, highly judgmental mental health system. Senator
Kirby
accepted his challenge. That triggered the chain of events that led to what Wilkerson calls “a process that forces us to do better.”

He and Wilson were content to remain in the background at Wednesday’s announcement. They see the new standard as a critical first step. They hope others — better mental health services for children, safer housing for people with psychiatric disorders, a larger share of the health-care budget for mental illness, a more enlightened public debate — will follow.

They don’t plan to rest. But they are happy to let others do the heavy lifting.

Carol Goar
’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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